Archdiocese of Chicago

Office of Conciliation Department of Personnel Services

Technology and Distraction

Friday, February 17, 2012 9:30 AM

“As the technology gets smarter and faster, I get dumber and slower, and more distracted. This became clear to me last week when I again lost my car in the parking lot. After a ten-minute search in the rain on the acre of a blacktop, I finally found it. I pretended to know where I was going, but it was embarrassing. And last month, I found my billfold in the cheese drawer of the refrigerator after I finally decided to stop looking for it and finish making my lunch. And more than once I’ve been surprised at a stop sign, when a ceramic mug of hot coffee comes flying off the roof of my car, bounces off the hood, and shatters on the street. Perhaps these are all signs of something more ominous, or of something increasingly common: living between the past and the future, but never quite in the present.”